


Lien Times

by Kiiratam



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22934689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: When getting food with Yang, Blake tries not to think about just how much they're spending...Takes place between Volumes 1 and 2. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 8
Kudos: 88





	Lien Times

"Honey, what are we doing with tiny corn?"

  
Yang and Blake exchanged looks.

  
"Canned or fresh?" The reply drifted over from the dry goods aisle.

  
Char hefted the can with his prehensile tail, and not quite shouted back at his wife. "I didn't think we had fresh!" He turned back to his customers. " If we have fresh, do you want that?"

  
Yang just snorted. "I have literally never _not_ had these out of a can."

  
Jun leaned around the nearest corner. It was always slightly startling for Blake how tiny she was. Even her extra set of ears didn't add much height. "We haven't had fresh since the year with the extra early storms-"

  
Char started nodding, "Right, so the actual corn was only the size of the tiny corn-"

  
"No, but it was on sale, so we had a lot. We canned our own, because we couldn't sell it fast enough."

  
"Oh!" Char turned to the console, and tapped a few keys. "Found it, thanks, dear! It's still under our brand."

  
Jun vanished back around the corner, her voice bouncing back towards them. "Just remember to give them the discount!"

  
Honestly, even if this hadn't been a local Faunus market, Blake still might have come here for the show. It may not have been the fastest way to shop-

  
Char got it punched in, laughed in triumph, and went back to scanning the rest of their grocery items. "Okay, don't tell me, Yang, I want to guess. Stir fry?"

  
"Yup. How'd you know?"

  
"What else do you use tiny corn and bamboo shoots and sugar peas and-" He paused, holding up a giant jar of peanut butter. "With a peanut sauce."

  
"Ooo, swing and a miss." Yang held up one of the bags of chocolate chips from the back of the line.

  
"Riiiiight, your sister and her cookie addiction. Peanut butter cookies."

  
"Got it."

  
Blake felt a bit useless just standing there, so she started stuffing what Char had already scanned into plain paper bags.

  
And somehow, Jun _knew_ , because she hurdled out of the aisles and made shooing motions at Blake, ears twitching. "No, no! We work, you relax. They drive you hard enough at that school."

  
Falling back to Yang's side, Blake tried to defend herself. "It's been a pretty easy week. No tests."

  
Yang snorted. "Yeah, they're saving up for the finals."

  
Slowly nodding, Chair said, "And you're doing a big meal for everyone before that?"

  
Blake nodded back, conscious, as always, of how the motion might disrupt her bow. "One of our team-mates can't cook, so we're trying to teach her." Even here, when Yang knew, and Jun and Char probably knew about the bow trick, and almost certainly could tell that she was a Faunus too, but hadn't said anything-

  
"Can't cook? Can't cook?! What sort of parents did she have, that she can't _cook_?!" Jun seemed personally offended. "I cook, my husband cooks, my children cook - I may not be a fancy chef, but I can cook!" She shook her head. "At least you're fixing it."

  
Laughing, Yang said, "We're going to try. She can make coffee, at least."

  
 _Well, she can **now**. _The smell of burning coffee beans crawled its way out of Blake's memory. _So glad Coco handled that._

  
Jun had managed to bag all of their groceries, and was tapping her fingers, waiting for her husband to scan more items. "How does she take it? She isn't one of those persnickety types, is she? What was the ridiculous one we overheard Sunday, dear?"

  
Char scanned the white and brown sugars, mouth curled. "Double-strong skinny grande caramel macchiato with a vanilla twist."

  
"Ridiculous!" The sugars vanished into a bag.

  
Blake had to admit that Weiss wasn't _that_ bad. "She just takes it black." And couldn't resist adding, "Like her heart." It wasn't _really_ fair, but she was still a Schnee, and Blake hadn't really separated Weiss and the SDC in her mind. It was hard, especially when-

  
"You two not get along?" Char had stopped scanning, and was giving her a distinctly fatherly look.

  
She didn't really want to tell them who Weiss was. Or explain any of why she had a particular animosity towards the Schnees - even above most Faunus - or any of this giant mess that wasn't all her fault, but she was neck deep in it-

  
Yang cut in. "Blake's a tea drinker."

  
And somehow, that worked. Char smiled and went back to scanning. "Stir fry's a good choice. Lots of prep needing to get done. Good family activity. Hey, dear-"

  
"Depends how much homework the kids have." Jun grinned at her husband. "I bet they've got tests coming up too. Probably less fighting than yours." She added, to Yang and Blake.

  
Setting her face, Blake said, "That's why we're fighting. So that other people don't have to."

  
" _And_ we're really good at it." Yang grinned at her. "We also enjoy it just a little bit." She held out her her thumb and forefinger, spaced a fraction of a centimeter apart.

  
"I've seen your face during Bumblebee. You _love_ it."

  
"Ruby named our maneuver after my bike. Of course I love it!"

  
Jun frowned at all of the bags. "How are you getting all of this back to Beacon? Too much for a bike."

  
Yang beamed at her. "Teamwork! And the rack I put on my bike. Ruins the look, and the balance, but it's quick to put on and take off."

  
"But it's a long way to Beacon, and you said it makes it hard to balance-" Jun still looked worried, looking at all of their groceries.

  
Yang tried to reassure her. "We're just going to the shuttle port. We're meeting everyone else there, and they get to carry it back."

  
Char rang up the chocolate chips. "Good, good. I was getting a little worried. This is a lot more than you two usually get."

  
The total cost popped up on the monitor, and Blake tried not to react. She was pretty sure she'd managed it; they'd been putting away some of their Beacon stipend for this for weeks, in anticipation. But it was still a lot.

  
Yang passed over a stack of lien from one of her jacket pockets.

  
He snorted, and started counting, asking, with mock seriousness, "You two rob a bank?" Char slid one of the lien to Jun for her to look at, when she opened her mouth. "All new lien."

  
Spreading her hands, Yang eyed Blake. "Nah, I haven't been able to talk Blake into it, yet."

  
Jun lifted her gaze heavenward. "You two - don't rob banks. If you want to get lots of lien, you study actuarial science. Then the banks just _give_ you the money."

  
"Buuuuuuuut we're studying fighting. So, logically, robbing banks is putting our education to use." One of these days, Yang's grin was going to eat her ears. And Blake would laugh, and _laugh_ , and not lend Yang either set of hers-

  
Char grinned and shook his head. "The police might not follow your logic. So I wouldn't _bank_ on that."

  
"That's why I'm trying to get Blake too." Yang had her pun smirk on. "I wouldn't be _a_ _loan_."

  
He scoffed. "Come on, I'm trying to give you some credit. I wouldn't want you to be out of your _debts_."

  
"Blake, check this out. Char thinks we can't just vault over bank security. Like they could _cash_ us."

  
Turning to Jun, Blake said, "They're punning again."

  
"What, you think I can stop this?" Jun turned up her hands. "These Vale types and their puns. Char's just picked up some bad habits."

  
Yang broke off her punning. "Wait, you two aren't local?"

  
"Atlas, originally." Char seemed willing to set their game aside, faced with Yang's pun offensive. "Or, well, Mantle, really, but the nicer parts. Almost Atlas."

  
"Oh. Um, at least the weather's nicer here?"

  
The till dinged open, and Char started counting out their change. "The police, too."

  
Blake wasn't sure about that one - but she hadn't been to Mantle. Just heard stories from Ilia. She didn't want the stories she'd heard to be true, but -

  
And it looked like Yang didn't really know how to respond to that. Which wasn't surprising, really. She might have had a few run-ins with cops on Bumblebee - maybe even a chase, if she had been feeling extra rebellious - but she wasn't a Faunus. 

  
But she knew Blake's secret. Secrets. Most of them. And Yang would be trying to think of something to say, to - Blake didn't even know. Break the sudden tension? Commiserate?

  
It was Jun who broke the lull. "So when are you two getting married?"

  
_And now **I** have no idea what to say._

  
She could still feel herself turn bright red.

  
"Oh, uh." Yang put her hand behind her head. "We're, ummm. ...Not dating?"

  
And Jun started to say something, but Char cut her off. "Do you two want a hand getting this out to your bike?"

  
Blake just nodded as she grabbed bags. And, mercifully, another customer came up and Jun switched her attention to them, already asking how their kids were doing, and how their last batch of beer had turned out...

  
The three of them, arms full, pushed out the front door of _Open Barns_ , and walked to Bumblebee, waiting in the parking lot next door.

  
"Sorry about my wife. She's always trying to match-make. This is actually the third time this month something like this has happened."

  
Yang put her bags down on Bumblebee's rack, and held out her hands for Blake's. "That's okay. It happens."

  
Char kept going, in an absent-minded tone, half-talking to himself. "Of course, two of those couples proposed a few days later, so maybe she's onto something." And then kept going, stumbling a bit as he realized what he'd said. "But if you're not dating, that's fine! Jun just thinks that you look cute together, and she starts making assumptions after a couple of picnic lunches."

  
And Yang was very particularly paying attention to the bags, and how they would balance, and not looking at Blake at all, because Blake was just _fascinated_ by Bumblebee's tires...

  
Char cleared his throat, and held out the bags for Yang to take. "Let us know how the stir-fry goes. We'd love to hear if your other team-mate can actually learn to be a well-rounded person, not some Atlesian noble who can't do anything for themselves." He didn't know about Weiss, but he was still pretty close to the worst-possible-Weiss. She _had_ been getting better.

  
Blake managed to force out a "We'll come back soon!" that almost sounded sincere. Yang said something similar, and Blake could definitely _see_ her put her friendly mask on to do it. 

  
And, mercifully, Char was headed back inside. 

  
Yang straddled Bumblebee, turning the stabilizer off and trying to get a feel for the balance with all the groceries loaded.

  
Blake waited until she heard the front door close before she said anything. "That got awkward."

  
"Yeah." She grabbed their helmets, and held out Blake's for her to take. "Easy mistake, though. Friends, girlfriends - it can be a pretty thin line."

  
Taking the helmet, Blake put it on, fastening it. Buying time to think.

  
_I know which one you want. But... you're not acting like he did. You're not pushing._

  
_You're just trying to talk about it. Us._

  
"So are we going to start as soon as we get back?"

  
_That's me. Running away again._

  
Yang was putting her own helmet on. "Yeah, we're going to have to rush if we want to beat the shuttle back. You up for cop-watching?" She settled herself on Bumblebee, ready for Blake to get on too.

  
Flashing her a thumbs-up, Blake climbed onto Bumblebee. It was a little cramped, between Yang and the groceries, and she could definitely feel how the balance was different. Blake would have to stay extra still, try to make things as easy for Yang as possible.

  
_But only on Bumblebee. That's what I did for him - stay still, follow orders._

  
_Breathe in, hold it, breathe out._

  
_He's **not** going to ruin Bumblebee for me. I trust Yang; if I asked, I bet she'd teach me how to ride myself._

  
Blake wrapped her arms around her friend, squeezing to let Yang know that she was ready.

  
_But I like being like this. She feels nice._

  
_And I need the trust practice. We never did trust exercises, or teamwork practice, in the White Fang. We all had the same convictions, the same goals, and that was enough._

  
_Except it wasn't._

  
Bumblebee roared to life - and they pulled out of the parking lot at a decent speed. Yang was still confident about her ability to handle her bike. Even loaded with a not-girlfriend and a ton of groceries.

  
_I'm not a load. I'm her partner. She's just driving, right now._

  
_And I'm the one driving our relationship. Yang's behind me, following me._

  
Blake pulled herself out of that particular circling of thoughts. She knew it didn't actually lead anywhere. Instead, she ran over all the ingredients they bought, all the food preparations they had to do, and tried to figure out where Weiss should start.

  
_Yang and I still have to compare sauce recipes, so we need to work on that - which leaves Ruby and Weiss on knifework..._


End file.
